Author: Techman

Momentum is gaining in Washington for a privacy law that could sharply rein in the ability of the largest technology companies to collect and distribute people's personal data. A national law, the first of its kind in the U.S., could allow people to see or…

Pinterest, among the gaggle of tech companies hoping to go public this year, set a conservative price range Monday for its initial public offering. It hopes to raise as much as $1.5 billion in its initial offering of shares. The digital scrapbooking site said in…

Companies working with artificial intelligence need to install accountability mechanisms to prevent its being misused, the European Commission said on Monday, under new ethical guidelines for a technology open to abuse. AI projects should be transparent, have human oversight and secure and reliable algorithms, and…

Three years ago, a Dutchman climbed into his electric car and set out on a journey. Sunday, a motorcade of electric vehicles escorted him and his converted Volkswagen across an iconic bridge in Australia as he finished his record-setting adventure. VOA's Arash Arabasadi takes us…

Ever since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818, the world has been fascinated with the idea of creating life in a lab. But it remained in the realm of fiction... until it became a bit closer to reality with genetic engineering work in a Swiss…

Emojis, those cute, vivid images that liven up emails and texts, seem to come in all shapes, colors and sizes. After all, there are more than 2,800 to choose from. Among the favorites: the smiley face, the thumbs up, the birthday cake. But it turns…

Emojis, those cute vivid images that liven up emails and texts, seem to come in all shapes, colors and sizes. The smiley face, the thumbs up, the birthday cake. Add one more to the list — interracial couples. Michelle Quinn looked into the story behind…

Researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio are working on the next generation of batteries — a power supply that could theoretically almost never need to be recharged. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports. ...

Xu Ning from VOA Mandarin and reporter Rob Garver contributed to this report. STATE DEPARTMENT — The United States is acknowledging that many countries are not heeding warnings about the possible security risks in allowing Chinese tech giant Huawei to build the next generation of high-speech…

Some of the nation's top research universities are cutting ties with Chinese tech giant Huawei as the company faces allegations of bank fraud and trade theft. Colleges including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley, have said they will…

MacKenzie Bezos, ex-wife of Amazon.com Inc founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, will give 75 percent of their stake in the company and all voting rights to the billionaire entrepreneur. MacKenzie Bezos will also relinquish all her interests in the Washington Post newspaper and…

Facebook Inc's messaging app WhatsApp on Thursday launched its WhatsApp Business app for Apple Inc's iOS operating system, allowing small businesses to communicate with customers through the platform. WhatsApp Business will be available for free download from the App Store in Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, India,…

South Korea launched the world's first nationwide 5G mobile networks two days early, its top mobile carriers said Thursday, giving a handful of users access in a late-night scramble to be the first providers of the super-fast wireless technology. Three top telecom providers -- SK…

South Korea on Friday launches the world's first nationwide 5G mobile networks, a transformational leap that has superpowers sparring for control of an innovation that could change the day-to-day lives of billions of people. The fast communications heralded by fifth-generation wireless technology will ultimately underpin everything…

Facebook Inc on Wednesday changed the privacy settings on its WhatsApp messaging platform, allowing users to decide who can add them to chat groups, as it tries to revamp its image after growing privacy concerns among users. WhatsApp, which has about 1.5 billion users, has…

Boeing anti-stall software forced down the nose of a doomed Ethiopian jet even after pilots had turned it off, sources told Reuters on Wednesday, as investigators scrutinize the role played by technology and crew in the fatal March 10 crash. A preliminary Ethiopian report into…

Facebook is much better than it was in 2016 at tackling election interference but cannot guarantee the site will not be used to undermine European Parliament elections in May, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday. Chastened since suspected Russian operatives used Facebook and…

The Dutch security service advised the government Tuesday not to use technology from countries with active cyber-hacking campaigns against the Netherlands, such as China and Russia. The recommendation came as the Dutch government is weighing options for a new 5G telecommunications network in the coming…

Hundreds of ads on Facebook promised U.S. homeowners that they were eligible for huge state tax breaks if they installed new solar-energy panels. There was just one catch: None of it was true.   The scam ads used photos of nearly every U.S. governor —…

Singapore submitted wide-ranging fake news legislation in parliament on Monday, stoking fears from internet firms and human rights groups that it may give the government too much power and hinder freedom of speech. The law would require social media sites like Facebook to carry warnings…

Networks like Bluetooth connect our devices easily and effortlessly. But the area that these portable networks cover is big enough to make them hackable. Now, a group of engineers from Purdue has solved that problem by turning your body into a network. Kevin Enochs explains.…

Anjana Pasricha contributed to this report. ISLAMABAD - Facebook has removed hundreds of accounts and pages linked to Indian political parties or the Pakistani military for what the company described as "coordinated inauthentic behavior or spam." The Facebook or Instagram accounts, pages or groups were…

Facebook is lifting the lid on the algorithm that decides which posts appear in its news feed, as part of a drive to be more transparent and offer greater control to users. The feature "Why am I seeing this post?", being rolled out from Monday,…

David Johnston stands over a table full of peculiar items confiscated at Dulles International Airport: a glittery clutch with brass knuckles as a clasp. A perfume bottle shaped like a grenade. A rusted circular saw blade. A pocket-sized pitchfork. None of those is quite right.…

For techies and phone geeks, Digital Cambodia 2019 was the place to be. More than a dozen high school students clustered at the booth for Cellcard, Cambodia’s leading mobile operator. Under the booth’s 5G sign, they played video games on their phones. Hak Kimheng, a…

For decades, it was virtually unknown outside a small circle of investors, corporate lawyers and government officials.    But in recent years, the small interagency body known as the Committee for Investment in the United States has grown in prominence, propelled by a U.S. desire…

Facebook said Friday it is further tightening requirements for European Union political advertising, in its latest efforts to prevent foreign interference and increase transparency ahead of the bloc's parliamentary elections. However, some EU politicians criticized the social media giant, saying the measures will make pan-European…

Most of us don't give much thought to getting dressed every day, but for the elderly and disabled, seemingly simple tasks - like buttoning a shirt - can prove complicated. Fashion design students recently looked at low-tech ways to make clothes smarter. Tina Trinh reports.…